A New Companion
by Black Stormraven
Summary: It begins, as most good stories do, in a rubbish heap. A girl, barely surviving as a scavenger, makes an extraordinary discover...and sells her soul to the devil for her one wish: to belong.
1. Chapter 1

**Note:** Why, hello again! I just wanted to give a little preface to this particular fic so I won't be misunderstood. Although I love him to death, I have some issues with the Doctor that no one seems to be addressing. I'm hoping to do a little bit of that with this fic, and moreso with another one I'm still fleshing out. This one is mainly to try to explore one a specific idea I've had for quite some time: what if the Doctor wasn't the only one with a companion? This is just the first chapter, so bear with me. Enjoy!

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><p>No, that one wouldn't work. Too damaged. The girl threw the mangled can over her shoulder into the growing pile behind her. She needed ones that weren't too banged up or rusted in order to get her tuppence for each. She didn't recycle out of some self-serving, half-assed desire to help the environment; she did it for the money. Ever since her father had been killed by muggers just a few months prior, she'd been on her own, scrounging for anything that would help her survive another day.<p>

She thought back on just how she'd ended up in this dump as she continued her search for recyclable goods. The memories seemed more like something from a movie rather than real life. What she remembered of her younger days were happy and good, but when she was seven her mother had walked out one day and never came back. Her father, the kind, sheltering man that he had been, had explained that Mummy didn't love Daddy anymore. She'd fallen in love with another man, so she'd gone to live with him instead. Young as she'd been, she'd understood (even though she'd been obviously upset by the news), and reassured Daddy that _she _still loved him and always would. He'd started crying at that innocent declaration and hugged her for nearly an hour.

_Amazing how little details like that stay with you, _she thought sadly. The love between parent and child didn't dampen as the years went on, however. Times had been difficult, what with her being too young to get a job and her father having to hold down two just to keep a roof over their heads. It was on his way to his second job, in fact, when he'd been killed by a trio of muggers for all the cash in his pocket: £12.53.

The police had found her the next day, and when they'd told her the terrible news, she'd given up. Her faith in humanity had been shattered beyond repair by one violent act that destroyed her entire world. The one person she loved with all her heart and knew loved her just as much had been taken from her. Relatives had been of no help, none of them wanting to take in a traumatized seventeen-year old; the same with "family friends". She'd been sent to an orphanage by the courts, but they could only shelter her until she turned eighteen...which happened to be less than five months after she'd been put there.

So, that left her here now, digging through the refuse of the city and its inhabitants she now despised. She dragged herself back to the present with a small shudder. She had to work, not linger on memories that reopened wounds. If she wanted to eat and have an extra pair of socks she needed to find more cans. Maybe a few plastic bottles at the very least.

Her digging continued steadily in silence despite the chill of the night air. She moved through three more heaps of trash, her "keep" pile slowly growing more respectable. _Just a couple more,_ she thought. As she reached for a glimmer of something shiny, she noticed how curiously this particular heap was shaped. Her fingers made contact with the shiny thing; it felt solid enough. _A bike, maybe?_ She pulled, but it was lodged firm. Perhaps the garbage had been packed down too tightly around it. She started pulling everything that was loose away from it, determined to make it her last piece for the night.

Her fingers touched something at the end of the newly revealed metal rod, something rubbery. Clearing away more debris, she saw it was a plunger-like object. She forced her instinctive disgust aside (after all, going through the dump of a major city had yielded far more nauseating items) when she saw that the other end was attached to something as well...and if it was indeed a plunger, it was the weirdest one she'd ever seen in her life.

She cleared more, working faster as her curiosity and fascination increased when large half-orbs showed themselves, then the flat metal sheets they were fused to, followed by seeming-out-of-place horizontal ridges above those. Her heartbeat increased as the pieces fell into place, reconstructing a memory long-buried, but never fully forgotten. Something evil, something so terrifying and so incredibly...wonderful.

She recalled seeing the sky that day, staring out her classroom window as she usually did, as she brushed aside the last pieces of trash from the domed "head". She'd seen millions of these things that day, filling the sky so that even the sun had been blocked. Everyone else had started screaming and running, but not her. She'd merely stood at the window in awe, watching as what she would later come to know as the Daleks move in such beautiful harmony as they rained destruction and death on those below them. She'd understood the horror of the act of mass genocide against her own species, but she'd also seen something she'd never once felt herself: unity. Every individual Dalek acted as a single entity to reach one common goal, however terrible. Her own life had been nothing but the finest examples of selfishness and single-minded arrogance humanity had to offer (her mother leaving, the lack of respect shown to her father by others, the lack of concern for a lonely child shown by her relatives). It was only during that global invasion that she'd seen a group work together for something greater than its members alone. It'd struck a chord deep within her, a longing to belong to something so utterly unified; no dissention, no back-stabbing politics, no lone wolves. All were equal.

And now, in the cold, putrid night air of a London dump, she faced one of those terrifying, wonderful creatures. But something was glaringly wrong: it was here in a dump. A _dump._ "What the hell..." the girl muttered under her breath. Looking closer, she saw the dented and scorched sides, the places where its orbs should have been but weren't, the hard bend of the not-a-plunger device that shouldn't have been there. It looked like it had been through hell. _Welcome to my life,_ she thought dryly.

It looked quite pitiful, actually. Such an obviously proud creature reduced to this. She reached out to it again, wanting to investigate the extent of the damage. Her hand had only just landed on its head (what she assumed to be its head) when she felt a searing pain shoot through her palm. She jerked her arm back with a sharp yelp. The pain faded almost instantly. "_Curiouser and curioser", to quote Lewis Carroll. _Without warning, a voice cut through the air. Deep, foreboding, unequivocally hateful, and in pain. "D...N...A…..ex...tra...po...late...sssystems...restooooooore..." The voice grew stronger as it went on, sending a shiver up her spine.

It reminded her of magic as shown by movies, the Dalek coming to life. There was a kind of subtlety to the process, a series of blink-and-something's-changed moments. In a single word: beautiful. It was over in mere moments, giving her no time to appreciate every detail of it. The dents and scorches were still present, but its head and (what she akinned to) arms could move, albeit slowly. She couldn't stop herself from gawking; what could she say? What could she do?

Her racing mind screeched to a dead stop when the singular glowing eye focused directly on her. "EXTERMINATE!"

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><p><strong>TBC...<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**The site is being stupid and not letting me reply to my reviews, so I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's taken the time to write one for this story! And Aietradaea, you're half right ;) The Doctor will be making an appearance in the next chapter (I think. Possibly. Maybe. At the end. -shrug-), but for now, more Dalek goodness! Btw, yes, both the Dalek and the girl are original characters. Like I said in the first chapter, I have some personal issues to work out with the Doctor and I don't think I can have any established character that I know well enough do what I want to be done. Enough talk! On with the show!**

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><p>For a flicker of a second, her meager life ran through her head like an old film. That one word, said with such hate and arrogance like it had been by millions on Invasion Day, made time seem to stop in its tracks. She continued to stare even after she realized she wasn't dead. The Dalek's whisk-like arm that she knew it to be its main weapon jerked from side to side, obviously attempting to fire but unable to do so. She let out the breath she'd been holding as the Dalek also noticed what was wrong. "What is this?" it demanded. "My systems are restored. Why can I not fire? Explain! Explaaaaaain!" It began moving towards her, the loose trash moving aside like water as it moved.<p>

"I don't know!" she shouted. "Seriously, I don't know!"

It stopped just in front of her. "You are human."

She wasn't entirely sure that was phrased as a question, but the need to fill the following silence was too strong. "Y-yes. You're a Dalek, right?"

"Correct." Its single eye peered at her closely as if trying to decipher something. "It was your DNA I absorbed?"

Now that was definitely a question. "I guess so, yeah." She touched her palm, remembering the flash of pain. "Was that what that burning was when I touched you?"

"You laid hands on a Dalek?" it screeched angrily. "A human dared to touch a Child of Skaro?" It advanced further, forcing her to walk backwards to keep some distance between them until she figured out what it was going to do.

"I didn't mean to! I just found you here and…..it was an accident!"

"You…found me…" Was that a tone of confusion in its baritone voice?

"Yeah, I found you. You were covered in rubbish, so I cleared it away." She paused, debating whether or not to share her memory. _Ah, what the hell._ "I've seen your kind before," she started gently. "A few years ago. You invaded Earth, like a swarm of bees. I remember being in schoo-"

"It was your DNA I absorbed," it interrupted. "Are you an associate of the Doctor?"

"Who? What doctor?"

"The DOCTOR! The greatest enemy of the Daleks!"

"Look, I have no idea who this doctor is, but I don't know him. Haven't been to a doctor since I was ten."

She could practically feel the skepticism coming from it, but it must have sensed that she told only the truth. "If you are not an associate of the Doctor, how is it you are a time traveler?"

She didn't mean to laugh. Really, she didn't. But what else could she do? It was such a ridiculous notion she couldn't help herself. "Me? A time traveler?" she choked through her laughter. "Are you mental? It's not even possible!"

"Incorrect." It rolled closer to her, slower, more controlled this time. "The Doctor and the Daleks have one common ability: we both can travel through time."

Her bout of mirth stopped. It was completely serious. "How is that possible? You…you can travel through time?" A childlike wonder crept into her voice as she thought about the possibilities this new information provided, something she would have hated hearing from herself a few years ago. But things were different now; any pride she'd once had long since gone.

"You say that you cannot do the same," it said. It seemed to be talking more to itself than to her, trying to logically put things into their rightful places. "You are a lowly human and not a companion of the Doctor." Once again, its eye zeroed in on her face as if trying to see into her very soul. She did not step back this time. "What are you? Truly?"

"I'm human," she replied honestly. "As much good as it's done me, I'm just a regular human."

A pause. And another pause. The Dalek's eyestalk slowly moved down her until it reached her feet, then traveled back up to her face just as slow. "You speak with contempt for what you are. This is new."

She shrugged a shoulder, as if her contempt for being human were as natural as the sun rising in the east every morning. "Well, life hasn't exactly been golden for me. Why do you think I'm here in the same dump as you?"

The Dalek seemed to just now realize where it was. It swiveled its head to take in the disgusting scenery around them. "This is not UNIT."

"Sorry, what's UNIT?"

The head turned back to her, the eye still penetrating, although somehow softer…slightly. "A human military organization. They are the ones who imprisoned me. Tortured me."

She gasped in shock. "That's what happened to you?" Her gaze slid down to the burnt and dented sides, sympathy for the alien evident in her eyes. She reached out a hand in an instinctive gesture to comfort, stopping just short of actually making contact with it; she didn't want it to become angry again. "How could anyone do this to something like you?"

She jerked her hand back for the second time that night when it spoke, a hint of the anger she'd been trying to avoid in its voice. "Daleks have no need for pity!"

"It's not pity," she explained. "It's sympathy. There's a difference."

"Explain."

Her eyes grew hard as she obeyed its order, but not at the Dalek. "You've seen what humans do to other species. They tear them apart, rip them open to get to the squishy innards. See what makes them tick. That's what they did to you, wasn't it?"

Silence.

"They…attempted to learn about Daleks. Through me." There was a hoarse almost-sadness in its tone. Did it realize that?

"Well, look at what they do to their own kind." She spread her arms out in a gesture to herself. "My father was killed by human trash. Humans would rather turn a child out onto the streets than protect her from the harshness of the world. They maim and butcher each other over money or land or pride. They kill their own home with pollution and deforestation." She sighed in resignation as she spoke aloud of the disgust for her species she'd felt and tried to conceal for years. "I'm not exactly proud to be human anymore, especially now that I know there's life outside of our little blue dot at the corner of the galaxy. I can't change what I am, but there you have it." She glanced up at the Dalek, still as a statue as it listened to her mini tirade. A small laugh escaped her lips at the ludicrousness of it all. "I've never said that out loud to anyone, not even myself. How strange I should admit it to an alien."

"I was…incorrect," the Dalek said finally. "You are not an ordinary human."

"Thanks, but I wasn't exactly fishing for compliments," she said, avoiding its stare. The silence that followed was stifling. "So…what happens now?"

"Explain."

"Aren't you going to kill me or something? That's what Daleks do, right?"

Its deadly arm (the one without the suction cup) wiggled a bit in response. "I…cannot. My weapons are too damaged. They are irreparable without aid from the others."

"Others? There are more of you?" That childlike tone had returned much to her chagrin.

"Only four others survived the Doctor's interference that day," it clarified. "The Cult of Skaro. I must contact Dalek Sec."

"Is he your leader? Dalek Sec?"

"Yes."

"Do you have a name, too?"

Another pause. _It's like a soap with all these dramatic silences._ "I am Dalek Trel."

"Dalek Trel," she repeated, familiarizing herself with its name. "I'm Helena."

"I have no need for your name."

"Well, you may not need it, but I'm giving it to you anyway." She smiled at him, the first real smile she'd shown in a very long time. "And I'll give you my help, too…if you want it."

"What 'help' could you possibly offer a Dalek?"

"You want this planet, don't you? And I have no love for its inhabitants anymore. In a way, we're the same. Perhaps we could work together?" A risky move, but she really had nothing else to try for to get out of the hell she'd been thrown into. Everything came down to two choices: this insane idea of aiding a Dalek in trying to eradicate the human race from the face of the Earth, or to continue digging through garbage in the hopes of earning a few pounds for clean socks. At least with the former she wouldn't be alone.

Trel appeared to think it over; that gave her a tiny bit of hope. "What help could you offer to me? You have no power. No control over the human population."

"No, but I can tell you things about how humanity works that you can use to your advantage. While you wait for your leader to answer your hail or whatever, you can start another invasion, this time with a bit more subtlety; too much at once and the army would find you in a heartbeat. I can also show you things about our ways of warfare that you can use since your weapons don't work." And she could: the Internet was full of tutorials on how to make bombs out of household chemicals and numerous studies on the psychology of war and its effects on both the warriors and the victims. She'd spent a lot of time at public libraries over the years; various links and random searches had yielded some interesting results. Thankfully she'd learned long ago how to delete her history and hide her questionable trail.

"And what would you gain from such an alliance? Explain. Explaaaain!"

"Something to believe in."

"Elaborate."

"I want to belong to something. I never fit in as a kid, even worse when I was a teenager. Then the only person who showed me any kind of affection and love was taken from me. But when I saw your invasion, I saw the unity. I wanted to belong to something that had that kind of precision and cohesiveness. I still do. So, there you have it. We can help each other, or you can kill me now. Because I'm not just going to let this opportunity walk away from me."

Trel seemed stunned. Even she was a bit. Did she really just offer to help start World War III/Intergalactic War II with a creature that despised her very species? "You would have made a good Dalek," Trel finally replied.

She felt her eyes brighten with the smallest amount of hope. "Then, do we have an accord?" She held her hand out to it, her breath caught in her chest as she waited for his answer.

Trel's eye moved to her hand. He looked back up to her face after a long moment of contemplation. "We do."

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><p><strong>TBC…<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**I must say I never expected to get so many positive reviews in just a couple days! Thank you all so much! I love you guys! (utahraptor: B-but I needs mah brains to make more chapters :P) This chapter I think is kind of boring compared to the first two since there's quite a bit of exposition here, but I assure you it is necessary. Oh, and just to cover my own butt: I do NOT condone acts of terrorism or mass violence. They're included in this story for a reason. I don't want to hear about someone going out and doing stuff like that because they read it in a fanfic o.o The only real acts of terrorism I've included here are the mentions of the train bombings back in 2005; the others are made up. (Wow, I really like to hear myself talk, don't I?)**

**Anyway! More development and exploration of characters!**

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><p>"…around 10:30 this morning. So far, at least twenty people have been pronounced dead, with fifty-seven more injured by the blast." The reporter tried to hide her discomfort at having to report on such a story, but the tears in her eyes gave her away. Helena watched the images of death and chaos play across the dozen or so television screens in the store window, her expression forcibly flat and emotionless, and her arms crossed defensively across her chest. "Once again," the reporter continued, "The whole of Downing Street is now completely closed off due to an explosion at number 10 that occurred this morning around 10:30. It is unknown if the Prime Minister was caught in the blast, but officials are not commenting either way. We can only hope that he was not in residence at the time."<p>

The small group of people that had gathered around the storefront watched the news with heavy hearts, some having to be held by their loved ones as they grieved for those who had been killed by the senseless act of terrorism. Some grumbled theories about who or what had been responsible, most of them centering on Al-Qaeda. The reporter looked off-camera as a paper came into view on her desk. "Oh," she began shakily. "I-I've just received word that the death count has been confirmed to at least thirty-two, with seventy having been sent to hospital for serious injuries. Still no word on the Prime Minister's status, however. Fire marshalls are trying to determine the cause of the explosion, but they won't be able to conduct a thorough investigation until everyone has been cleared from the area." She took a few deep breaths to calm herself before she could look at the camera again. "Let's all just hope and pray that no one else will die today from this terrible act of violence and hate."

"It's gonna get worse, I tell ya," said an older man in a tweed jacket. "Them terrorists are gettin' smar'er everyday. They're gonna hit the Palace next, mark mah words!"

"Charles, hush!" the woman at his side admonished. "Don't say such things!"

"Well, it's true! Look what they did to tha' hospi'al last month. And tha' courthouse and bus before tha'! And don't tell me you forgo' about them train bombings a few years ago."

"Which means we got 'em on our own soil," contributed a younger man. He stared at the numerous TVs as more images of carnage rolled across the screens. "They're here in our own city. How the hell di' they even get here? Ain't airport security doing their jobs?"

"What makes you think they came here on a plane?" Helena asked him. "There are sympathizers all over the world. Look at India and America; they have had major attacks in the past few years, too."

"Yeah, but what other group hates the Western world and likes to show it as much as Al-Qaeda? Plus, we're BRITAIN! We're better than this!"

Helena looked back to the TVs. "Thank God you're not in the police force, mate, otherwise you'd have everyone who even looked Middle Eastern rounded up. It's not that simple to find a terrorist or a sympathizer. Hell, for all we here know you could have been the one who set off that bomb on Downing Street." She kept talking to cut off his indignant tirade that she knew was coming when he stared at her with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. "I am only speaking objectively; anyone could have done it and we'd never know until it was too late. It's like you said-" she nodded towards Charles "-terrorists are getting smarter. They know how to hide better. A co-worker, a friend, even a family member could be one and no one would know anything until it was all over. Whatever happened to trust and patriotism in this country?"

The group fell silent at her words, thinking them over. "You're right," the young man relented. "It could have easily been any one of us. We can only hope that we've all picked our friends wisely."

Minutes passed and the group began to disperse. Charles's wife had had enough of the horrific images, as had her husband. The others gradually followed suit until only Helena and the young man remained, both fixated on the TVs. "So," he started slowly. "Not to appear too rash or insensitive, but would you like to get a coffee?"

She blinked. _Did I just hear him right?_ She turned towards him, her brow furrowed in confusion. "Pardon?"

He turned to her with a small smile. "Would you have a coffee with me?"

A moment passed before she chuckled. "Are you asking me on a date?"

"That depends."

"On what?"

"If you want it to be."

Her gaze turned coy, playful. "You're asking me on a date while the rest of the country is in full panic mode. Isn't that a little brash?"

"Maybe, but wouldn't a date help ease the pain of the attack, even if only for a moment?"

She couldn't help but laugh at his youthful confidence. In the middle of the deadliest attacks on Britain since the Second World War, he wanted to take her out for coffee. "Sorry, mate. I'm married." She flashed the gold band on her left hand at him to prove it.

He deflated a little right before her eyes. But he tried to hide his disappointment admirably. "Well, would you let me buy you a drink anyway?"

"Why?"

"Because you knocked me down a peg back there," came his honest reply. "You sound like an interesting person, like you can see things from different points of view. It doesn't hurt that you're hot, too."

"If you say so, mate." _Flattery doesn't work on me, mister._ "But like I said: I'm married. I don't go on dates with anyone else anymore."

"Ah, but how about a drink with a new friend? And Eric, please." She looked at his proffered hand as he introduced himself. "Eric Hale. And you are…?"

"Leaving." She turned away with another coy smile, not wanting to hurt his feelings.

"At least your first name?" he called after her.

She could hear the smile in his voice, but she kept on walking down the sidewalk. "Would you prefer the truth or a lie?" she answered back, keeping her voice light.

"How about a phone number?"

"Try the phone book!" She looked over her shoulder, showing him the huge smile on her lips just before she turned the corner.

The smile dropped. She took a deep breath to control her irritation. She had better things to do than make small talk with an arrogant male.

Forty-five minutes and three train transfers before Helena found herself walking into the comfort of her house. Finally, she could let out her true feelings regarding the horror at Downing Street: she laughed. She even had to fight the urge to start dancing as her glee expanded until she could feel it throughout her entire body. Her laughter only stopped when she had to draw breath. Everything was going so well!

Over the past year, she'd become the world's most feared individual…and no one ever suspected her. Every law enforcement agency in Britain had photos of the greatest threats to public security, felons and terrorists alike. Every one of them had the same #1 public enemy: a blank piece of paper in a frame or taped to a wall. They had no idea the one responsible for the most devastating attacks on the general populace in recent memory was one girl who'd crawled from a dump just one year ago. But she hadn't done them alone.

"Helena." The stilted voice that would have terrified anyone else brought a genuine smile to her lips as it echoed through the house. She started down the hallway to its source. Dalek Trel greeted her as she entered the room where he had set up his operations base, having integrated himself with various computers she'd acquired over the months. "What is the status of the humans?"

Helena's smile widened as she approached him. "It is wonderful! Their emotions are taking over their logic and rationale. Fear is most prevalent, grief and despair following closely. But once those emotions run their courses, the paranoia and hate will set in and turn them against one another. I was able to plant doubt in the minds of several today, and it will soon spread like fire." She crouched beside him as she spoke, her hands gently pressed against his side for balance. He'd grown accustomed to her touch and didn't even acknowledge it any longer. "They will lay blame on each other, completely unaware of the truth."

His eyestalk turned down towards her. "And what of the human leader? The Prime Minister?"

"The news stations say he has not been accounted for, but I know for a fact that he was in residence when the bomb detonated. I believe they are keeping his death from the public so as not to cause further panic. But that will not last long. This country is now without a true leader!"

"Correct! This world will soon fall into darkness, and the Dalek Empire will thrive once more!"

Helena's joy only grew at his words, as did her smile. All those weeks and months of planning and work were paying off! She no longer had to act like an animal to survive another day. She was now a part of something greater than herself, aiding a cause that would benefit not only the planet itself by ridding it of its filth, but the Dalek she'd come to think of as family. She wanted nothing more than to remain by his side as they continued to bring the world to its knees.

Trel had turned back to the numerous computers and servers he had wired to himself, working on several things simultaneously; she'd always been in awe of how efficiently he could multitask. "I will go take a nap," she announced. "I am very tired and want to be ready for the next phase of our work." She stood and made towards the doorway, her eyes lingering just for a moment on the still-burnt metal of his side; they'd never been able to restore his physical structure nor his weapons systems, but that didn't matter as much anymore.

"Very well," Trel acknowledged absently.

She didn't bother with a bed; she slept on the worn-out sofa the rare times she did sleep. Trel had helped her acquire this house when she'd brought him the first laptop she'd stolen; people in coffee shops really needed to keep an eye on their computers when they went to the toilet. He'd hacked into the London lottery and reconfigured it to make one specific family the winners of the two hundred million-pound prize. The family had been more than happy to collect their winnings and move to Greece the next day, a lifelong dream of theirs as the papers had declared. Helena had then bought their house herself, again with Trel's help. Modern economics relied too heavily on credit and 'theoretical funds' to be safeguarded; he'd created a credit account for her with an unrestricted limit. After all, credit was nothing more than a series of 1s and 0s, child's play for him to rig for their use. Helena had taken on the guise of being a successful computer programmer, wealthy enough to buy a house outright on the first visit. The area was nice, quiet, and safe; no one asked any questions or tried to invite themselves over for visits. Everyone kept to themselves in this neighborhood. Even so, Trel had managed to create what he called a perception filter to surround the house. "To shield it from all others," he'd explained.

After they'd settled themselves into the house, everything else fell into place. He'd begun integrating himself into the computers Helena had gotten a hold of, assimilating every tiny bit of information available into his own systems. In short, Trel had downloaded the Internet.

Their first act of war against humanity had been small, almost insignificant. A simple bus bomb. Trel had constructed the bomb and Helena had planted it. She'd been nearly invisible when she'd entered the bus depot wearing the personal perception filter Trel had fashioned for her: a simple gold ring. For the first time, she was glad to be ignored. The bomb had detonated an hour later with a full load of commuters. It had worked!

They'd then bombed a courthouse, hacked into police and government servers (all of which had been under the best security available, but nothing for Trel to break through), contaminated various medications by altering the amount of a single active ingredient distributed into each individual pill or capsule (technology was once again too easy to manipulate, even from a remote location), and blew up a hospital. The last act had been the final straw for most people; they'd begun looking at neighbors and authority figures with suspicion. And now Downing Street was in chaos. How could they possibly know a girl not even twenty years old had committed all those atrocities, not some previously-unknown Al-Qaeda cell?

Helena flopped herself onto the couch, her smile still strong. She threw her arms over her head, feeling like an overgrown cat as she languidly stretched her entire body down the length of the sofa. Her smile remained even as she drifted off to sleep.

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><p>She awoke several hours later to Trel's not-a-plunger arm gently shaking her shoulder. "Hel," he said, using the nickname he'd picked for her rather than her full name, her <em>human<em> name. "It is time."

"For what?" She pulled herself into a sitting position, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"The Cult of Skaro will be within range of this planet tonight. We must leave here."

Now she was awake. "They're here? Really? How do you know?"

"Daleks can sense when others are near. I have sent a transmission to Dalek Sec. He and the others will be here within the hour. We must go to an isolated place so they can transport us."

"You mean, you're taking me with you?" she asked, shocked.

"Why would I not?" Trel sounded genuinely confused by the question.

She tried to formulate an explanation, but could not. She'd always avoided thinking about what would happen when the Cult of Skaro arrived for their compatriot, fearful that she would be left behind or simply killed after all that she'd done to help them. To hear that Trel had no intention of leaving her made her heart swell. She shook her head at him. "Nevermind. Where should we meet them?"

"There is a park nearby, yes?"

"Correct."

"We will go there." Yet he made no move to leave. He just fixed his eye on her, studying her as he always had with an intensity she'd not felt from him since they first met. "Hel. I wish to show you something."

"What is it?" _This is…new._

"My true form."

"You mean, this isn't what you really look like?" She tried to hide her shock at the revelation; she'd never been given a reason to believe otherwise that this metal was his natural form.

"Correct."

"I do not understand. Explain."

"This armor is a shell. For protection. I will show you the truth."

For a brief, sickening moment she thought he'd gone dead. His lights had gone out and his eyestalk had drooped towards the floor. Then the metal sheets she'd come to think of as his torso split down the middle and began shifting aside; his domed head did the same. It seemed as if someone had taken a can opener and pried Trel open. Right there, sitting at her eye level in a makeshift seat was a large eye. It looked out at her, blinking against the artificial light from the streetlight outside the window. This was Dalek Trel; he reminded her of a small octopus, one with a very large brain. She let out a sigh of relief. She'd been afraid that everything would have changed; she quite liked the armor and would have been saddened to see it was not real. She didn't notice the tear that had escaped her eye and trickled down her cheek.

"What is this?" Trel asked. "Why do you weep?"

She touched her face, brushing the wetness aside. "Just…I don't know. I guess I'm happy."

"I do not understand. Explain," he echoed belatedly.

"I guess…I thought you might change too much. I thought that you were going to say your true form was...like, a giant blue monkey or something. I did not want that. I have grown…comfortable with your appearance as it is. It is illogical, I know."

Trel lifted what she could only equate to a tentacle, reaching out towards her. She obeyed his unspoken command and leaned forward. "This one time I want to touch you with my own flesh," he said, a tone of longing in his voice. She'd never commented on how he seemed to develop emotions as time passed by, but she didn't necessarily find that to be a bad thing. In fact, she found herself overcome with emotion herself. He wanted to touch her. He'd gone from angrily protesting when her touch had restored him to life in the city dump to willingly wanting to touch her. Nothing in heaven or hell would prevent her from allowing him this one indulgence.

Helena leaned closer to his outstretched limb so he didn't have to strain. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but eventually his tentacle made contact with her cheek. She sighed at his touch, the first sincere touch of flesh to flesh that she'd had in years. Her eyes fluttered shut as her smile grew; for the first time in a very long time she felt utterly content. Trel caressed her cheek softly, deliberately, as if attempting to burn the moment into his memory. Perhaps that was exactly what he was doing; she sure as hell was. She nuzzled against his touch just as a lover would, the wrinkled skin of the Dalek as welcome to her as a cool breeze on a summer's day.

But all too soon he pulled away, and Helena tried not to feel like she'd lost something irreplaceably precious when he did. "We must go," he said as he began closing his armor. He was right. They still had work to do.

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><p>"How soon until they are in orbit, Trel?" Helena asked impatiently, her gaze fixated on the star-filled sky above.<p>

"Soon enough, Hel. I will have only one opportunity to send a signal. It must be precise."

She nodded her acquiescence and lowered herself to the ground to lean against him. She observed the golden ring on her left hand, its design so simple, yet its usefulness unmatched. It had kept her outside the notice of others, yet if someone did happen to see past the invisible shield she'd had an excuse to make an exit; it had happened earlier with that Eric person. Of course, she'd wanted him to see her so that she could begin planting those little seeds of doubt. She turned the ring on her finger twice before the déjà vu set in again; she'd done this before. She shook her head to clear it away.

She'd always had instances of déjà vu; she knew everyone did. But lately they'd been getting stronger and more frequent. She had begun to get a little creeped out by them. _It's just in your head, idiot,_ she chastised herself. _Just focus on the here and now. Enjoy your time with Trel while you still have it._ Her hand dropped. Soon she'd be on a Dalek ship venturing off into the universe to continue solidifying her place in it. She'd be far away from the species that had thrown her into the gutter, making further plans to cleanse the Earth of their presence forever. And she wouldn't be alone anymore. She finally had someone worth caring about again.

Her gaze shifted from the stars to the Dalek she leaned against. "Trel, do you know the names of all those stars?"

"What is the purpose of your enquiry?"

"I am curious. It's so big. The universe. Can you really go anywhere, any time?"

"Yes."

"I just think that is amazing." Her tone turned wistful as she thought about the possibilities of travelling with Trel and his companions. "So many of us are bound to one place, to one time. It is almost inconceivable to us that travel is not restricted to one planet, let alone one time frame."

"You will not be restricted," he assured. "You shall see the universe as it was meant to be: purged of all non-Daleks!"

She smiled at him. "I look forward to it."

They remained in comfortable silence, waiting until Trel received word from Dalek Sec to send his signal to the ship, until a strange noise intruded on the moment. Helena titled her head to try to better hear the sound, her brow furrowing in confusion. It was coming from behind her. "What the hell…?" It resembled the sound gears made when they grated on each other, but another sound mingled with it, like the wheezing of a sick person. She turned to confront the source, but Trel had beaten her to it.

"IT IS THE DOCTOR!" he screamed angrily.

"What? How is this possible?" she shouted back as she got to her feet.

Within seconds the blue box that Trel had once described to her faded into view on the grassy field. It solidified with a _thud_, but the door remained closed. Dalek and human glared at it with all the hatred and disgust in their bodies; Helena had to resist hissing at it. Suddenly, without a hint of warning, the door swung inward and a tall, thin man in a brown suit stepped out. "'Allo 'allo 'allo!" he greeted cheerily. "Fancy seeing you here!" So far, he had not moved his eyes to Helena; he addressed only Trel. His eyes and grin suddenly became hard, his voice dropping to a deadly serious octave. "Have you missed me?"

**TBC….**

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><p><strong>Surprise surprise! Look who made an appearance! Just a couple things I wanted to point out: Don't anyone say anything about the "tentacle scene". Stfu, I know how dirty your minds are, you filthy, filthy people (3). And did anyone notice how Helena now speaks with less contractions and informality? Hintity hint hint ;) Annnnd I just realized something: I've been unconsciously drawing certain bits of dialogue from a bunch of movies for this fic. Hunt for Red October, PotC, Alice in Wonderland, LotR, etc. I'm such a nerd xD<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay, this site is being stupid. It keeps editing my punctuation marks, even when I go back and fix them, and it really takes away the tone I'm trying to create when the characters speak. Is there someone I can complain to about this? Dx **

**Anyway! Now comes the great confrontation! Hooray! Onward! (I know some of you are not going to like me after this chapter :3)**

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><p>Helena kept her eyes fixed on the Time Lord, the great enemy Trel had told her about in the past. The Oncoming Storm. The perception filter continued to shield her from his sight, but she didn't want to take any chances. She remained still as stone, even quieting her breathing. He sauntered towards them, keeping his distance all the while. "Seems to me that you're waaaay out of your time, sweetheart," he mocked. "Look at you! You're practically falling apart! Great big menace to the universe, mister superior-to-all, and you look like you just crawled out of a rubbish heap!" He barked out a laugh then, a menacing sound to Helena's ears. This man was indeed cruel, just as Trel had forewarned her. Trel said nothing in response to his taunts. He did, however, carefully position himself between his enemy and her. "But how did you get here? I sent all of you to the Void along with the Cybermen! No no no, I'll work that out later." His gaze flitted over the Dalek's form, taking special note of the deformations. "Your weapons systems are damaged, obviously-" he scrutinized the scorches and marks on Trel's body "-and you haven't been able to repair them, otherwise you'd have fired already. Oh, this is Christmas!" He clapped his hands together and turned in a tight circle in celebration. "You've got no means of defense, no way to kill more innocent people! What, no words of outrage? No promises of my extermination? No grand speeches about how inferior everyone else to you?" He stalked closer, putting Helena on edge. She didn't want to reveal herself unless absolutely necessary, but if he dared to come much closer she would. "Now, my question to you is this: what in hell are you doing here?"<p>

Trel kept quiet for a beat. Helena analyzed every possibility of what could happen and what she could do to stop the Doctor from doing any harm to either of them. "I have survived! I am a Dalek! I will always survive!"

"Ah, so you're a cockroach then?" the Doctor countered. "Always coming back for more, eh?" Helena flinched when she saw him reach into his coat pocket; she knew that he carried no true weapon, but she refused to take any chances. "How lucky for me that you're all alone now." He withdrew a slim metallic device and flipped it in the air. She kept her eyes on it as it spun. "No one here to save you. I don't care how you survived Canary Wharf, the point is you're here now. You're the last of your kind, mate. And I can finally rid the universe of you once and for all!"

Helena gasped when he pointed the device at Trel and pressed a button. Trel began screaming as something caused his outer casing to tremble violently. She rushed at the Doctor and shoved him. HARD. The device fell from his hand and Trel's screams ceased. She let out an angry hiss at the Time Lord, a primal, guttural instinct she could no longer control. She saw his eyes widen in shock as he finally saw past the perception filter. "You will not harm him again!"

"W-what?" he stuttered.

Trel had recovered from his whatever torture the Doctor had inflicted and rolled to Helena's side. "Behold, Oncoming Storm," he began triumphantly. "I am a supreme Dalek! The greatest of my kind! For now I rival the Doctor: a Dalek with a human companion!" Helena could not help the swell of pride at being designated as such by him.

The Doctor looked back and forth between them both, confusion as plain as day on his face. "What the…who…WHAT?"

"You heard correctly, Doctor," Helena said, spitting out his name. "I am the companion of the greatest Dalek!"

She watched a flood of emotions and thoughts cross his ageless face as he attempted to come to grips with the facts presented to him. _Good. As long as he does not go for his weapon again. _"What? What kind of game do you think you're playing?" he shouted at Trel. He quickly looked back to her. "What is going on?"

"We have informed you already, Doctor," she ground out. "I am his companion."

He hesitated before speaking again, still trying to wrap his brain around the concept. _God, he's thick._ "But you're human!"

"Biologically, yes."

He looked her up and down, assessing her. "You're human!" he repeated needlessly. "You're supposed to be afraid of the Daleks! Hate them! How is this possible?"

"You suppose much about me, Time Lord," she replied steadily. "But I know far more about you. You who destroyed two planets out of cowardice. You who ran from your own people as they lay dying when the weight of your deed settled on your shoulders. You who think of yourself as a god." She smirked at him when his eyes widened further. "Dalek Trel has informed me of you and your past. You presume much, but I **know** more."

"Oh, you lot have started naming yourselves, have you? Oh, that's rich," he addressed Trel. He quickly diverted his attention back to Helena, his eyes softening. "What is your name?"

"You are unworthy to know it," she snapped.

"Yeeeeah, got that bit, but it's a simple question. Where's the harm in it?"

She knew he was trying to manipulate her. The softness in his voice was nothing more than a farce. She knew of the dangerous creature that dwelt beneath his veneer of kindness. _We will play your game then. But you will lose. _"Helena."

"Helena" he echoed. "Lovely name. Helena….what?"

"I have no surname."

"Okaaaay." He lifted a hand to her, showing his empty palm. "Helena, come over here with me. You've no idea what this thing is, what it's done. Or what it's going to do to you." She stared at his hand, wondering if he really thought she was that stupid. "Look, whatever it's promised you, whatever it's threatened you with, it's brainwashed you. It's lying. Daleks are nothing but evil in its purest form. It will kill you! You've seen what it can do, the devastation it and its kind caused. You look like a smart girl, so make the right choice: come with me."

Her cold gaze flicked up to meet his, a moment of disbelief passing over her. She felt rather than saw Trel's eyestalk turn towards her, as if unsure of what her response would be. For the second time that day, she laughed. A deep laugh from her gut that made her whole body shake. When she could control herself, she met the Doctor's stunned stare evenly. "Now I understand why you constantly change companions: you speak such pretty, brave words. You believe that every human female sees this as your true self: the handsome hero who swoops in with his magic blue box and makes grand speeches of the virtues of goodness and justice. I am not a pitiful female. I see the truth. You come in a guise of charity and benevolence, but you are an almost-perfect liar. Everything you do is for yourself. You run when circumstances grow dull or too difficult. You adopt strays to ease your loneliness then cast them aside when they bore you. You change faces to avoid the finality of death itself. But I see the true you: a selfish child with a shiny car. So let me put this into human terms you will comprehend: fuck you and your righteous bullshit."

He pointed an admonishing finger at her. "That kind of language is uncalled for!"

"Would it sound more preferable if I spoke it in Spanish? Or French? Or Gallifreyan?" She stood straighter when she saw that her words had struck him.

"That is very dangerous ground to be treading on, girl," he growled. "You weren't there. You haven't the faintest idea what happened, what the Daleks did. You don't know anything about me except what this-" he gestured toward Trel, who had remained silent "-has told you!"

"And yet it is acceptable for you to lecture to me what I should think and do?" He visibly flinched when she advanced a single step, a movement created from pure anger and indignation. "I have told you: I am not like those moronic females you abduct then abandon. I am supreme!"

Trel turned his eyestalk back to the Doctor, a distinct smugness emanating from him at Helena's words of defiance. The Doctor looked back and forth between them again, obviously not used to being told off with such ferocity. She rejoiced in the knowledge that he could be so easily silenced. "Just what are you playing at, Dalek?" _Apparently not easily enough_, she groaned inwardly. "A Dalek with a companion is about as un-Dalek-like as it gets! And a human one at that! What's the thinking in it?"

Helena glanced toward Trel, unsure of how much he would say; she knew they needed to keep the Time Lord distracted long enough for Dalek Sec and the others to get within orbit for Trel to send his signal, but how much would they have to reveal in exchange? "She gave me life," he began slowly. "When I was crippled."

The Doctor's expression became thoughtful for a beat before turning calculating. "Ah, so that's what happened to you. Explains the weapons not working and the other things." He gestured to Trel's sides and missing orbs. "Good on them, whoever did it." Helena growled under her breath at that remark. That one sentence cemented her hate for him, igniting a rage deep in her belly that would surely last for years to come. "But just what is she to you? You call her your 'companion', but it's not that simple, is it?" He squinted at Trel's glowing eye as if trying to see inside the armor to the living creature beneath it.

"She is everything," he replied, raw honestly coating his processed voice. "She is mother. Sister. Lover. Friend."

The Doctor reeled, but Helena smiled brightly. "Well, that's…umm…..deep, "the Doctor said. "For a Dalek, that is deep. But how? How exactly did she restore you?" He glanced at Helena. "No offense, but you don't really look like an expert in Dalek physiology and mechanics."

"A transfer of DNA," Trel explained, still stalling for more time.

"Naaaah," he drawled exaggeratedly. "Tha's not possible. I've seen this before. You can only extra-"

"-polate the DNA of a time traveller," Helena finished. "Someone who has been touched by the raw energy of space and time." She titled her head at him. She'd heard those words before.

"Now how did you know what I was going to say?" He took a tentative step towards her, Trel tracking his movements closely. He leaned in closer and sniffed the air around her. "Oooohhhhh, I see. Déjà vu, yeah? Have you had many instances of having been somewhere or done or heard something before?"

She glanced at Trel, wondering how much of her life to give away. "Yes."

"Oh, that's clever. That's so clever!" _This man is mad. One second threatening, the next praising._ "You can only extrapolate DNA that's been exposed to space-time energy, and that's just what you did. Only it wasn't strong enough, was it? It could only revive you, not completely restore you."

"Cease talking," Helena snapped. She'd had enough of this man. "If you have nothing of worth to say, do not speak further!"

"Oh, this is of worth, Helena." She did not like the tone of knowing in his voice. "Déjà vu is in fact time travel. In its most base, simple form, but time travel nonetheless. Every time you've experienced the sensation of having done something before, you have. You've hopped forward in time, then back, but your memory is altered until you come to the point that you repeat. Every person feels it at least once in their lives, but it's no where near strong enough to compare to the time travel needed to fully restore a Dalek. You touched it when you found it, yes? That's how it absorbs DNA. It feeds off the genetic makeup of other species in order to survive. But that goes against everything a Dalek stands for, right?" He made to approach Trel, but Helena blocked his path. "Well, looks like it's not the only thing you're doing differently, eh? Dalek Trel, was it? First you absorb a human's DNA, which means you must have absorbed her emotions, didn't you. Then you take her as your companion. And you have no weapon. Not a very good Dalek anymore, are you?"

"I am his weapon!" she defended.

"Oh really? And how exactly do you figure that, I wonder?" He kept his tone light, but she could hear the layer of apprehension underneath.

"Watch the evening news, Doctor." He would get no more information from her than that.

His stare once again turned cold. "What did you do? Helena, what have you done?"

"What was necessary," Trel answered. "This planet will become the new home of the Dalek Empire!"

"What empire? You're the only one left! And I'll fix that shortly."

"You will not!" Helena moved to stand in front of Trel.

"Helena, please," he beseeched almost-convincingly. "Move away from it. It will kill you. Let me save you."

"Spare me your false generosity, Doctor! I have no need for it. I do not require rescue! I am in my rightful place: between Trel and you."

He stepped back, seeming to finally accept the facts laid before him rather than think the universe was playing tricks on him.

"Helena," Trel called. "Stand aside. The Doctor is mine to exterminate!"

"Oh yeah, and how ya gonna do that, eh? Your weapons aren't functioning! You're useless as a Dalek!"

"And you as a Time Lord!" Trel screeched. His anger had now come to its apex, spilling from him like a physical wave.

"What did you say?" The alien in question had dropped all pretenses. A cold fury burned in his eyes as he looked at Trel, Helena observing him closely.

"You have destroyed your own people, your own planet, in an attempt to destroy us. None survived the Time War save for you. But the Daleks did! I am not the last. I am the beginning! A new Empire will spring from the ashes of defeat, and you are powerless to stop it!"

"You're lying. I've killed you all time and time again. Somehow you alone escaped our last battle, but I'll remedy that right now!" He abruptly dove for his 'weapon', but Helena followed his trail. She pinned his arms to the ground and kicked the device away from his outstretched hands. The way he writhed under her in his attempt to escape reminded her of a worm: slimy, slippery, and damn irritating. "What are you doing?" he yelled at her.

"You claim to be so clever, Lord of Time," she hissed back. "What do **you** think I am doing? I am protecting my family!"

"YOUR FAMILY? Are you mad?"

"Perhaps in your eyes, but I do not seek acceptance or approval from you!"

They continued to struggle for several moments, Helena keeping him on the ground by putting all of her weight on his back. She'd have to think of something else quickly; he would wriggle away soon if she did not change her tactic.

"Hel!" Trel called out to her, urgency coloring his voice.

The brief moment she took to look up the Doctor used to his advantage and flung her off of him. He felt for his device along the grass while she got to her feet. "What is it? What is wrong?"

"Humans detected! Estimated time of arrival: twenty rels!"

"What?" She cut short her questions when she saw the Doctor retrieve his 'weapon' and stand as well. She remained as a shield in front of Trel, silently daring him to attack.

"Helena, get out of the way!" he warned. "I can still save you, whether you want me to or not. I won't lose someone else to the Daleks!"

"I refuse! You will have to kill me to make me step aside."

"Helena, I am not playing games! This world, your home planet is in danger every second this thing lives! Now move!"

"I will not!"

But she did move. A sound, barely louder than a breath, disturbed the air. She fell back against Trel within the span of a second; his 'arms' were the only things keeping her upright. A stifling silence descended around the trio until her breathing grew wet and labored. The Doctor saw the wound first, but said nothing. He only gaped in apparent horror. Then she felt it, the warmth, followed closely by pain. She looked down to her chest and discovered the source of the sensations: a small hole, barely bigger than a small button. And the blood. She watched in morbid curiosity as so much blood poured from such a tiny hole. She pressed her palm against the flow, but the sticky red liquid forced its way through the spaces between her fingers. She began to tremble. _No. NO! This is impossible! I will not die! Not by the Doctor's hand!_

She heard Trel scream out her name, an awful, horrible sound that clawed at her heart. She drew a labored, raspy breath as she turned her head to look up into his eye. "T-Trel…" Even that one word drained too much energy. _Do not let me die. Not here. Not by him! I still have to see the universe with you! _The burning soon began, spreading out from her chest until every nerve felt as if it were being torn from under her skin. She wailed harshly against the pain but the distraction was only temporary; it returned in full force whenever she took a breath.

"You will not advance!" she heard Trel howl in rage. The Doctor must have moved forward to her, but Trel's words halted him. "Signal initiated! Begin transport to Dalek ship!" New sounds reached her ears through her heart beating in her ears and her shrieks: people running. Metal clanked against metal. The footfalls were heavy, more than likely booted. She never saw the new arrivals, however. Seconds later she was nearly blinded by light. Her cries resonated off what must have been the interior of the Dalek craft. Trel had done it! Through everything crashing down around them, he'd timed their rescue to perfection. But she could not enjoy it. The pain shooting throughout her body was too great. She tried to shut her eyes against it, but to no avail.

"What is this?" she heard another voice ask. _Another Dalek!_ "Explain! Explain! Explaaaaaaaain!"

Trel did not answer immediately. She curled downwards into herself, still instinctively trying to stop the sharp pain. "SAVE HER!"

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><p><strong>Let the hate begin! 8D<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**So! This is going to be the last chapter! Hooray! I do want to forewarn everyone that this chapter does get quite gory and disturbing (to me, at least), so just keep that in mind. Onward and upward!**

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><p>"Doctor, where is the Dalek?" the sergeant asked sharply. He obviously had only just come into his rank judging by his cockiness.<p>

"Apparently gone," he replied sternly. "The better question is what's it to you?"

The sergeant (Harris, going by his name plate) signaled his men to expand the search perimeter. "That Dalek is UNIT property. We were studying it so we could better prepare our forces for any future invasions."

"What? Since when did UNIT start holding Daleks captive? And how did you get hold of it? I sent them all back into the Void at Canary Wharf!"

"We'd apprehended one before you did that, sir." He ignored the Doctor's eyeroll at the formality. "By the time you'd opened the rift between the universes, we'd already taken it below ground."

"Yeah, okay, so how did it escape? When?" The Doctor was beginning to lose his patience. "It's gone!" he yelled to the soldiers. "It's been picked up by a ship." He nearly screamed in frustration. How did they always manage to escape?

"Over a year ago it escaped our holding facility. It said something about an 'emergency temporal shift' just before it vanished."

"It used up the last of its energy to escape the torture you inflicted on it. It didn't have enough to jump time frames, but it could send itself to another location. You broke it and made it even more dangerous!"

"With all due respect, Doctor," Harris said evenly, "we were studying a known enemy of Earth and you. Our methods are irrelevant. And how exactly have we made it stronger?"

"You held one prisoner!" He almost lost what little composure he had. "You kept it and tortured it! Daleks always pay back a favor like that! And they don't do it alone; they bring friends the next time. This planet would still be safe from them if you lot hadn't interfered!"

"Again with all due respect, you said it was picked up by a ship. If you got them all last time, where did the ship come from? And if it was indeed the last how can it come back with 'friends'?" His attitude was really beginning to grate on the Doctor's nerves.

"Daleks can clone themselves and create an entire army in no time. And besides, that's not the point! Well, it is a good point but not the big one. The bigger picture is that a Dalek has been living on Earth for over a year! Daleks don't just sit idly by. They attack! They kill! They slaughter without a second thought! And this one had a helper. Who knows how much it's learned about humanity from her!"

"That was the girl?" Harris seemed surprised, but that was quickly replaced with a coolness that only came with arrogance. "Good thing my men took her out before they disappeared then."

The Doctor looked at him, stunned. "What? **You** shot her?"

"Not me personally, sir. My soldier took the shot while he could; the girl was obviously protecting the Dalek, and if she was indeed on its side then she was an enemy of ours."

The Doctor took several deep breaths to calm his anger at the man. _This is why I hate the military,_ he thought. "That girl was human the same as you. She could have been saved! You didn't have to kill her! By the way, how'd you find us?"

"We picked up your TARDIS signal. We knew that wherever you were, the Dalek couldn't be far."

"Pardon me, sir," another soldier interrupted. Harris turned to him. "We've secured the area. No sign of the Dalek or the girl. Orders?"

Harris huffed through his nose at the news. "Very well. Pack it up. Let's move out."

The soldiers did as they were told, scurrying away like ants. "So what…that's it?" the Doctor shouted. "You've just shot a fellow human being and let one of the last living Daleks escape from you twice! And you're just gonna 'pack it up'?"

"If you have any other suggestions for us, Doctor, we'll gladly take them." He had no answer. Harris turned away and gathered his men, leaving the Doctor in silence.

He stared at the ground in frustration, wanting very badly to kick something. Anxiety began to creep in at the edges of his mind after he calmed himself a bit. This one Dalek had escaped, transported to a ship by what could only be another Dalek. _This is not good. __**Very **__not good._

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><p>"Control the female!" Dalek Sec bellowed. Helena thrashed and struggled against the restraints that had been placed on her, the pain that enveloped her pushing her past her limit. She screamed as the one known as Dalek Caan continued to prod inside the exposed muscle and bone of her left arm. She could not see what he was doing, nor did she wish to; it was enough that it hurt like hell. Dalek Thay monitored the screens and lights that displayed her vitals, though they did little else except blink and emit the occasional blip; the ship was not meant to house any form of life besides Daleks. Positioned beside Thay, Dalek Jast controlled the instruments that were now operating on other parts of her body that Caan did not already occupy.<p>

Helena had been placed on a platform that rose up to the Daleks' height. Their machinery and computers, all so alien to what she had been expecting, had vaporized the bullet fragments in her chest and cauterized the wound only after Trel had spoken on her behalf. She did not hear their conversation, but it was clear that Sec had begun to think her to be more useful alive than dead. He'd ordered her to be treated. Once she'd been secured on what she could only call an operating table, Sec and Trel had continued their dialogue culminating in what must have been an exchange of data that could not be explained properly in words. Their suction arms, which she now knew could shift into a multitude of shapes to suit the needs of the owner, joined together and a brief flash of light pulsed between them. It had been only then when Sec began to fully acknowledge her. Before he would allow any further aid, however, he had asked her only one question: "Why?" She had known what he meant. _Why have I aligned myself to a Dalek when my species is inferior. _She forced a raspy reply through the haze of pain and darkness clouding her vision, a simple truth that she had thought would be her last words: "Long live the Daleks."

And that had been that. Sec ordered the others to attend to her, which they did, but now they were doing something more. She knew she was very much alive, but it had become unbearable. She screamed through the sickening noises of metal scraping against muscle and the wet snap of her ulna and radius bones being broken and moved. Her body instinctively tried to fight back, but to no avail; she had been strapped down to the table and the restraints were now being tightened to better keep her still.

She called out for Trel whenever her brain would clear for a microsecond, desperately wanting to see him in the childish hope that he could 'make it better'. But he did not heed her calls. Caan continued prodding the inside of her arm, almost as if he were adding something to it. He only stopped when he had to retrieve something. Helena attempted to control her breathing and her racing mind. Trel. She had to see Trel. _Where is he? Why won't he answer me?_ The blinding light above her kept her from seeing anything within the ship, even when she turned her head to the side in her search for her beloved Dalek.

"You are human," came the somber voice of Sec. "Your kind is a pestilence. However, Dalek Trel sees great potential in you. Do you abandon all ties to your species? And your planet?"

She managed a tiny smile through her tears. "I did so long ago."

"Then you will be improved. To serve the new Dalek Empire!"

Another scream wrenched its way from her raw throat when Caan introduced both the metal of some tool and fire into her arm, while Jast used the elaborate machinery to slice into her chest from breast to navel and a second extension to drill into her skull just above her eyes. The sound of her sternum being cracked open reached her ears over her cries and it nearly made her vomit. Then came the most unpleasant, foreign sensation she knew no other human had ever experienced: a cold, slimy mass of solid matter falling into her opened torso right onto her organs. The Daleks must have been using some kind of magic for her to stay alive during her torture. She only wondered (and hoped) if she would still be sane afterwards. At least she would have Trel at her side to see her through it all.

She heard Sec's voice above the din of her wails, but she could not make out his words. Her world now consisted of only one thing: excruciating, unendurable agony.

* * *

><p>Time had become irrelevant. Hours or seconds could have passed before the Cult of Skaro completed their work on her; it no longer mattered. The observation light above her had been turned off and the machines were now quiet. Her focus returned as she sat upright and swung her legs over the edge of the table. The pain had disappeared as well despite the numerous scars she observed on her body. There was something else, something…new. She discovered that with little more than a thought she could change the way she saw her surroundings. Literally. She was reminded of old submarine films when the point of view of the audience became that of a character looking at a radar screen. Only instead of green, everything was now tinged with shades of blue. She brought her vision back to the normal color scheme and it looked in some way flatter, less interesting in a way. She lifted her left arm, noting the way it felt heavier than her right and the long scar running straight from her elbow until it turned in a circle at the center of her palm, much like a keyhole. Looking further down she saw its sister scar that carved its way down her entire torso.<p>

"You are now complete," she heard Dalek Sec proclaim. He moved forward until he stood mere feet away from her. The others were nowhere to be seen. "Your humanity is obsolete."

She had to try a few times before a single word would form in her mouth. When she found her voice it sounded foreign, yet somehow fitting. "Y-Yeeeeesssss." Her voice had become deeper. She sounded like Trel. She looked around, seeing everything yet ignoring it all in favor of what she desired to see. "Where is Dalek Trel?"

"Dalek Trel is no more." Her face betrayed no emotion, but she felt a great weight in her chest at the news. The one being in the universe that gave a damn about her had been killed. "He was sacrificed for a greater cause," Sec explained.

"What cause?"

"You. You are the next phase of our evolution, the continuation of the Dalek species!" She tilted her head at him. "The Cult of Skaro was created to imagine new ways of survival. The Daleks were only five, where once we were millions. We were on the verge of extinction…until Trel brought you to us. I recognized your unique qualities: your loyalty, your efficiency, and your hatred of humanity. I had a vision then, one that the others would not fully understand. Trel had to be exterminated; he had become contaminated by emotions. But he now serves another purpose." He gestured to the scar on her body with his eyestalk. "Dalek and human combined into one. The power of a Dalek merged with the imagination of a human."

So that explained it: the slimy mass that now resided in her was what was left of Trel. Dalek DNA in a human body. A Dalek that could move unnoticed amongst humans, gathering information and learning where their weakest points lay. A brilliant plan, in her opinion. "I understand."

"You do not grieve for him?"

"I do not. He is now a part of me, and I of him. I cannot mourn that which has not been lost."

Sec seemed satisfied with her response. "Raise your left arm," he commanded. She obeyed. He turned his eyestalk and emitted a projection of the Time Lord who had confronted her and Trel just before they'd transported onto the ship. Her rage at the Doctor had barely registered in her mind before a beam of light shot out from her palm, passing through the hologram and exploding on a console behind it. Shock now colored her expression. _Did I…did I really just do that?_ She turned her hand up to examine the place on her palm where the loop of the scar curved. She now realized she had become much more Dalek than human. Sec was right: she had been improved further than she could have imagined.

"You are Dalek Hel," Sec proclaimed grandly. "What is your purpose?"

She did not hesitate one second with a battle cry of a response. "To serve the Daleks!"

* * *

><p><strong>Annnnd there you have it! A precursor of sorts to "Daleks in Manhattan" and Dalek Sec's inspiration for turning himself into a hybrid. I want to thank everyone who reviewed or messaged me once again for being so cool and liking the idea of a Dalek with a companion as much as I do. If anyone feels confused or that I didn't explain enough, please feel free to message me and I'll be more than happy to elaborate :)<strong>


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